Manifest Destiny
by Ryu Niiyama
Summary: To conquer, to posses, to rule. That was the right of Heda, the terrible burden that Leksa of the Trikru bore upon weary shoulders. That right could not...would not be denied, not even by the Wanheda.
1. Heda

Manifest Destiny

By: Ryu Niiyama

This is a small three shot that hit me after seeing the end scene of Wanheda being presented to Heda.

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The Heda looked out from the balcony of her tower, watching the work that the Ice Nation threatened to annihilate. They had peace; the mountain was silent, but instead of trying to build higher, the Ice Nation wanted to tear everything away. The Heda was furious at the thought of her legacy, of her people being destroyed by such arrogance. Yet as the Heda seethed at the Ice Nation, Leksa could only see Klark. Klark's tortured face as she did what needed to be done to ensure that the Trikru would survive; Klark's dead, bruised face as Roan presented her. Leksa wanted to be grateful for the light that leapt into Klark's eyes as she realized who ordered her capture, yet sky blue burned in hatred and anger, no longer the soft sweet eyes of her Klark. Instead it was Wanheda, her greatest weapon, her greatest weakness that stared back.

Leksa had hoped had dreamed that she could reach her golden skiprisa, the words "I need you" being the most honest Leska had felt like she'd ever been. They had been an offering, a supplication that the Heda couldn't offer but that Leksa would do anything to give. Leksa had lost love once, and Klark was so much more than that…the skaiprisa was her soul. But Wanheda could not stomach such soft words, and she spat them back at Leksa and challenged the Heda.

If the Heda hadn't yearned for both Klark and Wanheda with the fires of a thousand missiles, she would have ended Klark for her threats, but Heda and Leska both would give her time. Klark's path was meant to be alongside Leksa, and Wanheda could only kneel to Heda. Heda gripped the balustrade and a different Klark appeared in her mind; one she had yet to see but she would burn the world to possess. The Klark in her mind was her ai prisa, her sky blue eyes warm with need and affection. Her ai prisa was beautiful, her golden mane sleek and shining, her skin clean and scented with oils as she lay in the furs of the Heda's bed, longing for her Heda's touch, craving her Leksa's kisses.

She would give her ai prisa everything; the Heda would offer her the head of the Ice queen and make the Skaikru one with Trikru, the Heda would command her ai prisa's love and she would have it. Leksa would offer Wanheda her heart and her beautiful weapon would be hers to level at their enemies. The Heda would bind Klark to her forever and there would be no one that didn't know that the skaiprisa was hers and hers alone. With Klark by her side Leksa would finally know peace and Heda would make the coalition into one nation. That was her true goal, her true destiny but she needed Wanheda at her side to do it.

She would have to break Wanheda to protect Klark, she would have to temper that fire to a weapon that could cut off the head of the Ice Nation. She would have to claim Klark in order to put Wanheda to the hammer. A small part of Leksa wondered if Klark would ever forgive her, but the Heda didn't care for Leksa's weakness. Klark belonged to the Heda, there was no other place for her except by her side and the Heda would not be denied her ai prisa. The Heda moved back into her chambers to prepare to take her nation and the woman that belonged to her. So the Heda commanded…so it would be.

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Mostly minor edits at this point (hammered this out this morning) read and review please.

Your Neighborhood Friendly Dragon,

R. Niiyama


	2. Clarke Griffin

Manifest Destiny: Clarke

By Ryu Niiyama

Please note this isn't actually a Clexa story.

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Clarke Griffin was dying.

The rage of Wanheda was burning Clarke Griffin alive, destroying everything about her; her kindness, her dreams, and leaving nothing but pain in its wake. Wanheda lusted for revenge but Clarke only wanted to be free. Clarke didn't want the crown of the sky that turned her into a monster, that took everything she valued and burned it to ash. Wanheda warred with Clarke, struggling to drown her in blood and fire and hatred. In the darkness they fought and the isolation the Heda ordered had given Clarke Griffin time to return to herself.

They had been wrong. The earth was not fit for humanity; not the humanity that created literature and art, that furthered medicine and mapped the stars. All that was left were these animals; tribals that didn't care about their lost legacy, barbarians that would bury the world again in war. Their simple cruelty spread to the last bastion of humanity, the Ark, turning what should have been humanity's rebirth into another faction of squabbling bickering tribes. They called her princess and instead of seeing how they could rebuild they regressed; forgetting the sacrifices of their ancestors to bind the space stations, to put nations that had been enemies in one place and have them work towards a common goal. They became corrupt and cruel, mimicking the grounder brethren they had never met.

The grounders had been barbaric and their sense of loyalty and honor only went as far as their own gains. They didn't take a long view, and the one that did, the one called Heda would destroy them all in her lust for glory and control. Clarke had been a fool to love her…to become Klark for her but she knew now these animals didn't understand loyalty. She would never be Klark again.

They used the skaiprisa, Finn had been the first, but the rest had followed his lead, only taking from her: her knowledge, her compassion, her kindness and they gave nothing in return. Lexa had used Klark as well, had wanted a stupid, simpering woman that she could use and then betray; that she could cast aside with no sense of loyalty or love. The Heda wanted Klark as well but she needed Wanheda, her lies had embroiled the coalition in dissent and she had the audacity to expect Wanheda to kneel at her feet and give her everything all over again.

They would never let her be free…they would see Clarke Griffin die to remake her in their image.

Roan had one thing correct, she had been too afraid, so afraid of becoming Klark or Wanheda that she was unable to protect Clarke Griffin. No longer would she be stripped of her right to be herself, the Ark had branded her a prisoner, Lexa had branded her Klark and The Heda and her mockery of humanity branded her Wanheda.

She thought of her father, a good man who died for what he believed in…even if it been a false justice. Her father held on to his identity till the end. His blood flowed through her veins…could she do any less? So Clarke Griffin waited in the dark and knitted her soul back together, piece by piece and she would bide her time.

Lexa believed she could bend her Klark, and she believed that her might was absolute…that there was nowhere that Klark could go that she could not find her. She believed that Klark was weak, a simpering maiden waiting for her powerful Heda to guide her. So she eased the guard after the first week, more focused on stopping the Ice Nation uprising. When her lone guard came to her with food Clarke struck, and this time she would not hesitate…this time she would not be afraid.

She killed him with the desperation that allowed her to slay a panther, just as that beast would have killed her, the Trikru wanted nothing more than to destroy Clarke Griffin and remake her into their Wanheda… their skaiprisa. She stripped the warrior and donned his clothes and weapons, ready to reach for her freedom and her right to be Clarke Griffin.

She may not escape, but let them come, if they killed her this day she would die as Clarke Griffin. And if she had to die this day she would die on her feet.


	3. Doktor Griffin

Manifest Destiny: Doktor Griffin

By: Ryu Niiyama

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Five years

It had taken nearly five years for the hunting parties of the Trikru Nation to find her. Five years for Leksa to drown in her grief and need for her ai prisa. Five years for the Heda to become a demon burning with betrayal of the loss of her Klark and Wanheda. Her rage had been enough to spearhead the tribes so that she could decimate the Ice Nation. Where Leksa would have been merciful the heartbroken Heda obliterated the Ice Nation.

Many of the Skaikru and Arkkru had moved on, traveling west. The coalition had been nervous at first but the skaiborn didn't attack, they merely…drifted away. The machines of the Skai made it too hard to easily follow and Leksa and the Heda both had no desire to hurt Klark through her people any longer. The other tribes had suggested that the Heda lead a war party and destroy them but after six months with no contact the Heda turned her eyes to the Nation she now had to build alone.

Heda built her Nation, but it felt hollow, empty. The Ark and Skai had left, their camps stripped bare...the hope of uniting Trikru to the blood and family of Klark going with them. Her ai prisa was gone, her clever Klark had slipped away in the chaos and this time she was not found. Her tracks didn't turn up until she was beyond Trikru borders, and with a war on her hands, beyond Leksa's reach. Yet the Heda didn't forget, she would never forget that which was hers and she would never again bury the love of heart. In time, with the ruins of the Ice Nation razed to the ground the Heda was free to send her warriors to bring back her Klark…to return to her, her Wanheda.

The search parties scoured and spread, reaching out like the Heda's hands for golden silk and warm sky blue eyes. Five years and finally Klark would return to where she belonged. But what her warriors bought back was not the shining princess of the Skai. This woman that returned to her had her Klark's beauty and a strength that Klark had always had the potential for, but her eyes were dead and empty. This time when she was presented to the Heda there was no hatred…there was nothing. Leksa wanted to pull her sweet Klark to her and coax her free of her pain but the Heda had to show that Klark would know her place and the Heda would not tolerate dissent. Before the Heda could speak, Klark -this time ungagged- spoke with a voice hoarse and broken from disuse.

"What do you want from me? All you do is take, Heda. You have taken everything from me…if you aren't going to kill me. You are wasting your time." And then she spoke no more. Only silence issued from her broken ai prisa and the Heda could only send her away.

Heda and Leksa both had been shocked, devastated by the emptiness, this bleakness that would not lift from her skaiprisa's dead, darkened eyes. She went to the leader of the warriors that returned Klark and demanded to know what happened. He described that the hunting party had found both the Skaiprisa and Wanheda that day. In a city, whole and clean unlike anything the Trikru or any other nation had built and they called her Klark "Doktor". She smiled and healed and lead a new people that were a mix of Skaikru, Arkkru and others they'd never seen before.

Yet when they revealed themselves the Doktor vanished and Wanheda, the true Wanheda took her place. They'd lost so many warriors to the weapons of the Skai and mountain and Wanheda had been at the front cutting a swath of blood through the hunting parties. Heda wanted to be proud of the prowess her woman displayed but she couldn't reconcile the warrior goddess of the stories to the dead thing in a cell.

Heda pressed further needing to know why Klark had returned to her so broken. There was another Doktor and the warrior hesitated when he described her beauty and that she was never far from Doktor Griffin and they both answered to the same title. The warrior shook his head, assuming it was some Skai ritual he didn't understand, but Leksa felt fear begin to take hold of her heart. The other Doktor fought beside Wanheda and helped tend to their injured, but it was when she fell that Wanheda did as well. The warrior shuddered as he recalled the keening wail that issued from Wanheda as she rushed to the other Doktor's side, but she could not tend to her, could not help her because the warrior had his party press forward to take advantage of Wanheda's lapse of strength. Wanheda struggled to reach the fallen one and it took four men to carry her away from the battle, those horrible cries ringing in their ears. Those four men suffered from nightmares the entire trek back and one ended his own fight before they returned.

"You've done well." Leksa whispered to her loyal warrior, hard eyes flickered to nearby guards and it was the Heda that spoke next. "End his fight." The Heda returned to her chambers and stood on her balcony once more. Her soul thrashed and snarled in pain and turmoil. She had gained her Nation, but it had cost her Klark; she knew of the Skaikru custom to take the second name of a mate. A mate. Another woman had warmed Klark's furs, another woman had shared in her hunts, another woman had tended to her wounds, another woman had shared in her stories. Another woman had taken her ai prisa from the path that she was meant to walk and left her with Doctor Clarke Griffin, with her dead eyes and listless, beautiful body. Clarke Griffin had run away from Leksa and had killed her Klark out of spite.

The Heda's eyes narrowed but inside Leksa howled in mourning for loss of her woman, of her mate. What right did that ghost woman have to steal away her Klark? What did she offer Klark that her Heda could not? That her Leksa could not? But that woman was dead now…no one knew better than Leksa the pain of losing love, but she would pick her Klark up and return her to her rightful place. She would have her ai prisa, so the Heda commanded…so it would be.


	4. Choice

Manifest Destiny: Choice

By Ryu Niiyama

Ok so apparently this is a four-shot. Also character death incoming.

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Klark would not eat.

The Doktor sat in her cell staring at the walls…waiting for death to claim her; still attempting to run to the woman that had fallen in battle. Both Heda and Leksa were furious, they would not let that woman have Klark any longer. When her guards found Klark unconscious and weak from hunger she had the blonde woman drug to a healer and food forced into her listless form. The Heda was uncompromising but Leksa cried bitter tears at watching her Klark choose death over her. When Klark woke again, those dead eyes only stared into nothing and with great pain Heda had the Doktor returned to her cell.

She knew that Klark had a brilliant mind that needed to be engaged so she had the guards leave charcoal with her food. It took two days but the guards told Heda of constant scratching as the Doktor began to draw on the walls. Still, she would not eat. Frustrated and afraid, Leksa went to her Klark and for a moment she wished she had not given the skaiprisa her charcoal. Klark drew where ever she could reach but it was what she drew that gutted the Heda. The honored warrior had not lied about the second Griffin's beauty. Clark had drawn her…them, over and over, putting her memories in tangible form. She saw Klark lay her head on the second Griffin's lap as they watched the sunrise, saw them work side by side healing and leading their people, watched them get lost in one another as the Doktor held her mate's naked form close. But there were words as well and the words alone almost ended the fight of the Heda.

"I am Doctor Clarke Griffin, wife, friend, healer. I will not be broken."

The statement was written just as much as the Second Griffin's smiling face was drawn. This quiet, lifeless thing was not weak, this Doktor endured the pain of hunger to show that she was strong enough to stand when The Heda would have her kneel. The Heda grew distraught but Leksa grew desperate. Leksa slammed into her Klark, the Wanheda's svelte form had become gaunt and weak with her enforced starvation. Leksa would not let this ghost woman have her mate…would not let her soul be taken from her without a fight. Leksa pressed her lips to Klark's with all her rage, and pain and longing, her hands ripped at the Doktor's clothes, reaching inside to feel the body she'd dreamed of for so long.

Klark did not respond.

Even when Leksa bit her bottom lip hard enough to draw blood she did nothing. Leksa howled and pushed the other woman away, and Klark sunk to the ground just as lifeless as always.

"What do you want Klark? Are you trying to push me to end your fight? Would ending mine bring life back to you? What do you want?!" For once the Heda and Leksa were one and they were afraid. Their Klark was fading and they could not reach her. Their Klark would rather die than feel their touch, or know their love. The Heda tried not to flinch under Klark's lifeless gaze, but she could not stop the strangled whimper that issued from her throat at the first words Klark had uttered in weeks.

"I want to go home. I was free…far enough away that you could never reach me. Far enough away that I could live, could love…as myself. You take and take from me Heda but I won't let you have this. I am Doctor Clarke Griffin…and I will die Doctor Clarke Griffin."

Then the Wanheda returned and she moved faster than Heda expected given her state. But it was not towards the Heda that she ran, but towards the opposite wall. She ran with all her might, all her pain, all her honor and slammed her head into the wall. Leksa moved to catch her but it was too late, Klark began to shake and seize and her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

"Klark! Stay with me! KLARK!"

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Five days.

It took Doktor Griffin five days to die. The Trikru didn't have Skai healing so they could not keep Klark's fight from ending. The sight would stay with Leksa until the end of her own fight. The sight of Klark's golden hair being stained with her own blood, surrounded by images of the woman she loved that wasn't Leksa. She remembered the golden ring that she had been told was Skai custom to share amongst mates. Somewhere, in the city her Skaiprisa called home another Griffin had her fight ended while wearing a matching ring. Heda held Klark's lifeless form and inside Leksa howled and tore at her hair at losing her Klark for a third and final time. The Heda had commanded but Klark did not obey.

And now the Heda was alone. Her Nation could not bring her comfort. Her people and their prosperity could not lighten her heart. She gave Klark a pyre worthy of her place as Wanheda and as the Heda's chosen mate. The Heda never took another to her bed or into her heart. In time the new nation that Klark had helped build spread enough to be a threat to the Trikru. Yet they did not attack, they would honor Clarke Griffin's last wish and not destroy all they had built with war. And the Heda wept, knowing that even though Klark's love had not been for her, Klark's kindness protected her still. So long as the Heda drew breath the Trikru Nation would never again harm those that Clarke Griffin loved.

So the Heda commanded…so it would be.

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Ok I honestly am not a fan of the majority of the characters on this show. Lord of the Flies situations have never been a hit with me. However I really like Clarke, I like all the different identities that are forced upon and her struggle to figure out who she really is. While I don't like Lexa I think she is true to herself and I respect that. I think she also struggles with what she feels is her manifest destiny as Heda and what she wants for herself as Lexa. Unfortunately I think both aspects are a bad fit for Clarke.


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